f 


CENTENNIAL  PAMPHLET  No.  14 

The  Bible  in  the  Life 
of  the  Indians  of 
the  United  States,  ^ 


o 

THOMAS  C.  MOFFETT.  D.D. 


AMERICAN  BIBLE  SOCIETY 
NEW  YORK 

1916 

t — 

pAVH>  tL  SPENCKB 
ao*T»—- •— 


Officers  of  the  American  Bible  Society 


President 

Jajcks  Wood,  ^ew  York. 


Vice-Presidents 


Hon.  John  W.  Fostkr.  LL.D  , D.  C. 
Ctbdb  Northrop,  LL.D.,  Minn. 

Hon.  William  P.  Dilunohah,  Vt. 
Hon.  E.  E.  Bkard,  Tenn. 

Merrill  E.  Gates,  LL.D..  D.  C. 
William  A.  Robinson,  Ky. 

Frank  E.  Spooner,  III. 

Georoe  W.  Watts.  N C. 

E H.  Sholl,  M.D.,  Ala. 

W,  T.  Hardie.  La. 

Hon  Chas.  E.  Hughes,  LLD..  N.  Y. 
Hon.  H H.  Seldoeridge,  Colo. 


John  R.  Mott.  LL.I)  , N.  Y. 

Hon.  Chas.  W.  Fairbanks.  LL.1)  . Ind. 
Capt.  Robert  Dollar.  Cal. 

Joshua  Levering.  Md. 

Hon  Simeon  E Bauiwin,  LL  D . Conn. 
Jambs  N.  Gamble.  O. 

Christopher  Mathewson.  Fla. 
Judge  Robert  F.  Raymond,  Maas. 

B Preston  Clark,  Maas. 

Gerard  Bekkman,  N.  Y. 

Churchill  H Cutting.  N.  Y. 


Correspondinit  Secretaries 

Ret.  John  Fox,  U.U.,  LL.D.  Rev.  Wii.i.iam  I.  Haven,  D.D. 

Assistant  Correspondind  Secretary 

Rev.  Lewis  B.  Chamberlain.  M..L. 


Recordintf  Secretary 

Rev.  Henrt  O.  Dwight,  LL.D. 


Treasurer 

William  Foulkk. 


Managers 

Term— 1913  to  1917 

Henrt  S.  Stearns.  M.D.  Howard  O.  Wood.  Mornat  Williams. 

Lewis  D.  Mason,  M.D.  Eben  E.  Olcott.  Obrin  R.  Judd. 

Edgar  McDonald.  Winthrop  M.  Tuttle. 


Term  1914  to  1918 

William  H.  Harris  James  w Pearsall  Henrt  A.  Ingraham. 

E.  Francis  Htde.  J.  Marshall  Stuart.  Fbkd’k  Frelinouutsbn. 

John  R.  Taber. 


Term-1915  to  1919 

Oborob  D.  Bbattts.  Silas  B.  Browxell.  Wm.  H.  Klbkkk. 
Prbdbrick  8.  Ddmcak.  Fbanklzn  Sa  Edmonds.  Jambs  R.  Jot. 
Ablakdo  Mabinb.  Gborob  W.  Davison. 


Term— 1916  to  1920 

Wm.  Jay  Schibffbun.  O S.  Macbknztb.  William  H.  Sfinobr. 

Wm  PhtliaIP*  Hall.  Waldron  p PbTaKnap.  John  T.  Hanson. 
Charles  D.  Lbvebich  C.  Edgar  Anderson. 


THE  BIBLE 

IN  THE  LIFE  OF  THE  INDIANS 
OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


REV.  THOMAS  C.  MOFFETT.  D.D.. 
Representative  for  Indian  Work  of  the  Home  Missions  Council 


AMERICAN  BIBLE  SOCIETY 
NEW  YORK 


1916 


WORK  OF  THE 

American  Bible  Society 

CARRIED  ON 

{5  Contiaeiits 
Islands  of  The  Seven  Seas 
Over  150  Languages 
12  Kinds  of  Scriptures  for  the  Blind 


By 


Bible  House,  N.  Y* 
Constantino^ 
Beirut 

9 Main  Printing  Bangkok 
^ . • Chieng  Mai 

Centers  Shanghai 

Chengtu 
Weiheisen 
. Yokohama 

Over  2,000  Colporteurs  > 496  At  Home 
and  Correspondents  ' t,66t  Abtoad 


ISSUES,  1915 

7,761,377  Volumes]i;^0|;f^‘ 


TOTAL  ISSUES  IN  100  YEARS 
117,687,591  VOLUMES 


The  American  Bible  Society  solicits  contribu- 
tions for  its  world-wide  work  of  Bible  distribution 
— 7,761,377  volumes  in  1915. 

Send  donations  to  any  of  our  Agency  Secre- 
taries, or  to  Mr.  Wm.  Foulke,  Treasurer,  Bible 
House,  Astor  Place,  New  York.  In  either  case  be 
sure  to  mention  “for  the  American  Bible  Society.  ’ ' 


OUTLINE 


PAGE 

A Race  without  a Written  Language  but  with  Diversi- 
fied Tongues 5 

The  First  American  Bible,  1661 : Eliot’s  Monumental 
Task 7 

Other  Notable  Translations 7 

The  Nez  Perces’  Search 8 

A Stirring  Appeal : Jason  Lee  Responds 10 

Marcus  Whitman 12 

Sequoya  and  the  Cherokee  Scriptures 12 

The  Great  Dakota  Bible 13 

The  Miracle  Among  the  Sioux 15 

Muskogee,  Creek,  Arapahoe  and  Winnebago IS 

The  Navaho  Heathmen 17 

Victorious  Conquest  over  Paganism 19 

President  Roosevelt’s  Testimony 21 

Leaders  of  the  Future 22 


A Paper  read  at  the  World’s  Bible  Congress, 
held  at  the  Panama-Pacific  Exposition,  San  Francisco,  Cahfomia. 
Aotrust  1-4,  1916. 


The  Bible 

In  the  Life  of  the  Indians 
of  the  United  States 


A Race  Without  a Written  Language 

The  untutored  Indian  of  North  America,  the 
primitive  Red  Man,  knew  nothing  of  a written 
language,  or  of  any  pictured  speech  beyond  the 
rudest  sand  paintings,  designs  on  birch  bark,  and 
pictographs  on  rocks  and  cliffs.  The  mystery  and 
marvel  of  the  white  man’s  written  and  printed  speech 
made  a profound  impression  on  the  unlettered  pagan. 
The  ‘ ‘ Religion  of  the  Book,  ’ ’ the  white  man’s  ‘ ‘ Guide 
to  Heaven,”  was  difficult  for  the  Indian  to  realize  as 
being  equally  intended  for  and  adapted  to  him.  He 
stood  aloof  saying,  “This  is  the  God  of  the  Paleface, 
very  good  for  him,  but  not  for  the  Red  Man.” 

How  great  was  the  surprise  and  the  interest,  there- 
fore, when  this  simple,  childlike,  primitive  man  heard 
read  to  him  from  the  printed  page  the  Word  of  God, 
translated  into  his  own  speech,  the  language  of  his 
tribe.  When  someone,  a member  of  his  own  tribe, 
perchance,  an  educated  Indian  and  a convert  to  the 
Christian  faith,  read  to  him  and  explained  the  printed 
page,  his  incredulity  and  lack  of  comprehension 
turned  into  admiration  and  comprehension,  by  the 
aid  of  the  Divine  Spirit.  With  the  dawning  intelli- 
gence that  the  religion  of  the  Book  was  just  as  much 
for  him  as  for  the  race  that  could  read  and  write, 
the  Scriptures  became  alive  and  personal  in  their 
application. 

Diversified  Tongues 

The  physical  likeness  of  the  Indian  tribes,  together 
with  the  extraordinary  diversity  of  language  found 

among  them,  is  suggestive  of  the  great  length  of 

5 


time  they  must  have  inhabited  America.  Between 
fifty  and  sixty  linguistic  stocks  are  found  north  of 
Mexico,  a more  exact  classification  placing  the  num- 
ber at  “57  varieties.”  These  tongues  differ  one  from 
the  other  so  radically  that  the  language  of  one  is 
usually  unintelligible  to  all  others,  and  these  lan- 
guages are  structurally  so  varied  that  they  may  be 
described  as  differing  as  widely  as  English  and 
Russian. 

The  reticence  of  the  Indian  and  his  reluctance  to 
speak  in  the  white  man’s  language,  even  when  he  is 
more  or  less  familiar  with  it,  and  his  stolidity,  which 
is  so  often  interpreted  as  stupidity,  are  due  to  un- 
suspected Indian  traits.  Exactness  of  expression, 
perfection  in  the  use  of  the  tribal  language  or  dia- 
lect, and  a fear  of  errors  in  speech  and  of  the  shame 
and  ridicule  which  these  bring  down  upon  him,  are 
the  secret  of  his  caution  and  reticence.  A foreigner 
learning  the  English  language  will  garble  it  ludic- 
rously and  will  enjoy  the  merriment  his  blunders 
provoke,  but  an  Indian  never.  He  is  sensitive  and 
abashed  lest  he  appear  ridiculous.  He  is  reticent 
and  content  with  bis  own  attainments.  If  you  have 
not  learned  his  language  in  order  to  converse  with 
him,  neither  does  he  care  to  learn  yours  or  to  put 
himself  in  a position  to  be  laughed  at  by  you  for 
his  blunders. 

The  Bible  in  whole  or  in  part  has  been  printed  in 
thirty-five  languages  of  Indians  north  of  Mexico.  In 
five  of  these  languages  the  whole  Bible  is  in  print,  the 
Mohican  or  Massachusetts,  the  Dakota  or  Sioux,  the 
Cree,  the  Eskimo  of  Labrador,  and  the  Tuk-kuth- 
kutchin — a tribe  of  the  Northern  Yukon  Territory, 
Canada.  In  nine  other  languages  the  New  Testament 
entire,  and  in  twenty-one  additional  languages  one  or 
more  books  of  the  Bible  have  appeared.  It  is 
an  interesting  study  to  review  in  historical  order 

6 


some  of  t±ie  most  notable  of  these  remarkable 
achievements  in  the  translation  and  printing  of  'the 
Holy  Scriptures  into  the  tongues  of  the  native 
American  race. 

The  First  American  Bible,  1661 
Eliot’s  Monumental  Task 
The  John  Eliot  Bible  in  the  language  of  the  Mohi- 
cans, whom  we  now  know  as  the  Stockbridge  Indians, 
is  notable  in  the  great  labor  involved  and  the  primacy 
which  this  Bible  takes  among  all  Indian  transla- 
tions. Eliot’s  monumental  task,  the  translation  of 
the  whole  Bible  into  the  Mohican  tongue,  the  common 
language  of  the  New  England  Indians,  the  compiling 
of  a grammar  and  other  language  work,  was  a pro- 
digious labor.  The  New  Testament  was  printed  in 
1661,  only  fifty  years  after  the  publication  of  the 
King  James  Version,  and  the  Old  Testament  in  1663. 
This  was  the  first  Bible  printed  in  America,  and  the 
few  copies  still  preserved  are  greatly  prized.  As  one 
turns  the  pages  of  this  beautifully-printed  book  and 
recalls  the  untiring  energy  and  zeal  of  this  pioneer 
of  Christian  missions,  the  lines  which  the  author 
inscribed  at  the  end  of  his  Indian  grammar  have 
new  significance:  “Prayer  and  pains,  through  faith 
in  Jesus  Christ,  will  do  anything.” 

Other  Notable  Translations 
In  1817  the  American  Bible  Society  was  asked  by 
the  Moravian  missionary,  Christian  Frederick 
Dencke,  to  publish  a part  of  the  New  Testament  which 
he  had  translated  into  the  language  of  the  Delaware 
Indians.  The  Managers  immediately  took  up  the 
proposal  and  after  securing  expert  opinion  on  the 
correctness  of  the  translation,  they  caused  to  be 
printed  one  thousand  copies  of  the  Epistles  of  John. 
This  venture  upon  an  unintelligible  jargon  was  the 
beginning  of  the  long  series  of  services  rendered  by 
the  Society  to  the  Indian  missions  of  many  denomina- 
tions. 


7 


The  Mohawk  Indians,  the  most  warlike  and  ter- 
rible tribe  of  the  great  Iroquois,  or  “Six  Nations” 
federation,  removed  to  Canada  after  the  Revolution- 
ary War,  dreading  punishment  for  taking  sides  with 
the  British.  In  1817  the  Bible  Society  decided  to 
print  the  Gospel  of  Mark  and  of  St.  John  in  the 
Mohawk  language,  and  ten  years  later  it  printed  the 
Gospel  of  Luke. 

The  Seneca  Indians,  reputed  the  wisest  and  most 
stable  of  the  tribes  of  the  Iroquois  federation,  have 
remained  for  the  most  part  in  New  York  State,  a few 
moving  to  the  Cornplanter  reservation  in  Pennsyl- 
vania. Missions  were  established  among  them  about 
1820,  and  in  1829  the  Bible  Society  began  its  direct 
participation  in  the  mission  work  by  printing  the 
Gospel  of  Luke  in  the  Seneca  language.  This  was 
followed  by  the  other  Gospels  and  by  some  of  the 
books  of  the  Old  Testament. 

Another  of  the  smaller  ventures  of  the  Bible  So- 
ciety in  providing  Indians  with  Scriptures  is  the 
Ojibwa  Version  of  the  New  Testament.  The  Ojibwa 
or  Chippewa  Indians  are  a large  tribe,  found  both  in 
the  United  States  and  Canada,  scattered  in  small 
groups  on  both  sides  of  the  basin  of  Lake  Superior. 
The  first  translations  in  Ojibwa  were  made  by  Dr. 
James,  in  1831,  for  the  Indians  in  Minnesota  and 
Wisconsin.  The  New  Testament  was  translated  by 
the  Rev.  Sherman  Hall.  The  Gospels  were  published 
first,  and  the  whole  New  Testament  was  printed  by 
the  American  Bible  Society  in  1844. 

The  Nez  Perces’  Search— “ Where  Is  the  White 
Man’s  Book  of  Heaven?” 

The  annals  of  Christian  missions  contain  no  inci- 
dent more  romantic  and  graphic  in  impressing  mis- 
sion needs  and  consecration  to  meet  those  needs,  than 
a scene  from  the  story  of  the  Nez  Perces  of  Idaho. 
In  the  year  1831  four  Nez  Perce  chiefs  made  their 

8 


way  over  the  Rockies  and  were  found  on  the  street  in 
St.  Louis,  asking,  “Where  is  the  white  man’s  Book 
of  Heaven?’’  General  Clark  befriended  them  and 
showed  them  everything  of  interest  in  the  town.  Two 
of  the  four  fell  ill  and  died.  Before  the  remaining 
Indians  departed  General  Clark  gave  a feast  to  them. 
It  was  at  this  feast  that,  in  a farewell  address  to 
General  Clark,  one  of  the  two  poured  forth  his  burden 
of  sorrow  in  words  of  pathetic  eloquence  as  follows : 
“I  came  to  you  over  the  trail  of  many  moons  from 
the  setting  sun.  You  were  tlie  friends  of  my  fathers, 
who  have  all  gone  the  long  way.  I came  with  an  eye 
partly  open  for  my  people  who  sit  in  darkness.  I go 
back  with  both  eyes  closed.  How  can  I go  back  blind 
to  my  blind  people?  I made  my  way  to  you  with 
strong  arms  through  many  enemies  and  strange 
lands  that  I might  carry  back  much  to  them.  I 
go  back  with  both  arms  broken  and  empty ! 
Two  fathers  came  with  us;  they  were  braves 
of  many  snows  and  wars.  We  leave  them  asleep 
here  by  your  great  water  and  teepees.  They 
were  tired  in  many  moons,  and  their  moccasins 
wore  out.  My  people  sent  me  to  get  the  white  man’s 
Book  of  Heaven.  You  took  me  to  where  you  allow 
your  women  to  dance,  as  we  do  not  ours ; and  the 
Book  was  not  there!  You  took  me  to  where  they 
worship  the  Great  Spirit  with  candles,  and  the  Book 
was  not  there ! You  showed  me  images  of  the  Great 
Spirit  and  pictures  of  the  Good  Land  beyond,  but  the 
Book  was  not  among  them  to  tell  me  the  way.  I am 
going  back  the  long  trail  to  my  people  in  the  dark 
land.  You  make  my  feet  heavy  with  gifts,  and  my 
moccasins  will  grow  old  carrying  them,  and  yet  the 
Book  is  not  among  them!  When  I tell  my  poor, 
blind  people  after  one  more  snow,  in  the  big  council, 
that  I did  not  bring  the  Book,  no  word  will  be  spoken 
by  our  old  men  or  by  our  young  braves.  One  by  one 
they  will  rise  up  and  go  out  in  silence.  My  people 


will  die  in  darkness,  and  they  will  go  on  a long  path 
to  other  hunting  grounds.  No  white  man  will  go 
with  them,  and  no  white  man’s  Book  to  make  the  way 
plain.  I have  no  more  words.” 

Such  evidence  as  we  have  confirms  the  statement 
that  this  speech  was  taken  down  by  a clerk  in  the 
office  and  sent  to  Pittsburg.  George  Gatlin,  the  artist 
who  painted  the  famous  portraits  of  Indians,  also 
confirmed  facts  connected  with  it.  This  Macedonian 
cry  stirred  the  hearts  of  the  people.  The  apparently 
fruitless  search  of  the  Nez  Perce  chiefs  resulted  in 
the  establishing  of  the  first  Protestant  mission  west 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  furnishing  the  pioneer  in  this  pathfinding 
expedition. 

A Stirring  Appeal 

It  was  in  response  to  a stirring  appeal  by  Dr.  Wil- 
bur Fisk  in  the  Christian  Advocate  of  New  York  that 
this  far-distant  field  was  entered.  The  words  in 
which  this  statesman  of  the  church  wrote  his  message 
for  the  press  are  of  interest  to-day,  as  the  prophecy 
of  his  far-seeing  leadership  is  recalled.  This  was  his 
summons  and  his  challenge  to  faith:  “Who  will  re- 
spond to  the  call  from  beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains? 
We  are  having  a mission  established  at  once.  Let  two 
suitable  men,  unencumbered  with  families  and  pos- 
sessing the  spirit  of  martyrs,  throw  themselves  into 
the  nation,  live  with  them,  learn  their  language, 
preach  Christ  to  them,  and,  as  the  way  opens  up,  in- 
troduce schools,  agriculture,  and  the  arts  of  civilized 
life.  Money  shall  be  forthcoming.  I will  be  bonds- 
man for  the  Church.  All  we  want  is  the  men.  Who 
will  go?  Bright  will  be  his  crown,  glorious  his  re- 
ward.” 

Jason  Lee  Responds 

The  Rev.  Jason  Lee,  a young  minister,  the  son  of 
a Canadian  pioneer,  was  the  servant  chosen  of  the 

10 


Lord  for  the  task.  He  was  at  the  time  thirty-two 
years  of  age,  hardy,  experienced  in  lumber-camp 
work,  and  six  feet  three  inches  in  height.  With  his 
nephew,  also  an  ordained  minister  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  and  a lay  associate,  he  became  the 
herald  of  the  gospel,  the  pioneer  worker  in  the  coun- 
try west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  the  hero  of  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  transcontinental  journeys  in 
the  history  of  American  missions.  Shipping  their 
supplies  around  Cape  Horn,  these  consecrated  men 
took  the  overland  journey  to  Oregon,  occupying  al- 
most five  months.  In  the  Willamette  valley,  sixty 
miles  from  Vancouver,  they  located  the  mission, 
which  developed  into  an  extensive  work  with  twelve 
ministers  and  their  families,  and  lay  associates  of 
physicians,  teachers,  and  farmers.  The  devotion  of 
the  young  missionary  to  his  task  is  expressed  in  his 
exclamation:  “Oh,  that  I could  address  the  Indians 
in  their  own  language ! My  ardent  soul  longs  to  be 
sounding  salvation  in  the  ears  of  these  Red  Men.  I 
trust  I shall  yet  see  many  of  them  rejoicing  in  the 
hope  of  the  glory  of  God.”  This  was  not  only  the 
introduction  of  Protestant  missions  into  Oregon  but 
of  civilization  among  the  Indians.  Thus  the  natives 
of  the  Willamette  valley  received  the  heralds  of  the 
gospel. 

Jason  Lee,  by  importing  cattle  from  California, 
making  a trip  east  to  interest  the  people  and  Con- 
gress, and  bringing  settlers  with  him,  helped  greatly 
to  make  Oregon  a part  of  the  United  States.  Dr. 
Lyman  sums  up  the  results  of  Lee’s  work  as  follows : 
“To  Jason  Lee  more  than  to  any  other  one,  unless 
we  except  Dr.  Marcus  Whitman,  must  be  attributed 
the  inauguration  of  that  remarkable  chain  of  cause 
and  effect,  a long  line  of  sequence  by  which  Oregon 
and  the  Pacific  Coast  in  general  became  American 
possessions,  and  the  international  destiny  of  our  na- 
tion was  secured.” 


11 


Marcus  Whitman 

The  Nez  Perces,  however,  were  to  wait  only  a 
short  time  for  the  fulfillment  of  their  hopes,  for  the 
following  spring  the  Rev.  Samuel  Parker,  and  a young 
physician  named  Marcus  Whitman,  were  asked  to 
explore  the  region  and  report.  Marcus  Whitman 
returned  a favorable  answer  and  made  preparations 
to  devote  himself  to  the  work.  This  began  romantic- 
ally by  his  taking  IMiss  Narcissa  Prentis  as  a wife,  and 
enlisting  in  the  cause  the  Rev.  H.  H.  Spalding  and 
his  bride,  the  two  couples  making  a honeymoon  jour- 
ney of  2,000  miles,  lasting  seven  months.  These  were 
the  first  two  white  women  to  cross  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains. On  the  Fourth  of  July  they  reached  the  Con- 
tinental Divide,  where  they  raised  the  flag,  and  under 
its  folds  fell  on  their  knees  and  took  possession  of 
the  Pacific  slope  in  the  name  of  God  and  the  United 
States. 

It  was  in  1871  that  the  American  Bible  Society  took 
over  the  work  of  printing  for  the  Nez  Perces  “The 
Book  that  makes  the  way  plain.”  Recently  these  In- 
dians, descendants  of  the  disappointed  company  that 
traveled  far  in  search  of  the  white  man’s  Book  of 
Heaven,  have  been  pronounced  by  a government  agent 
to  be  the  most  religious  people  he  has  ever  known, 
the  most  devout  Christians  of  our  land. 

Sequoya  and  the  Cherokee  Scriptures 

The  story  of  the  Cherokee  Scriptures  is  unique,  a 
new  syllabary  invented  by  Sequoya,  a member  of  the 
tribe,  being  the  medium  of  communication. 

In  the  person  of  Sequoya  and  his  work,  original  In- 
dian capacity  and  genius  were  evidenced.  He  was 
born  in  1763,  the  son  of  a Cherokee  mother  and  of  a 
white  man  of  German  descent.  His  name  was  George 
Guess.  He  possessed  a remarkable  natural  power  of 
observation.  He  felt  the  superiority  of  the  whites, 
and  attributed  this  to  their  learning  and  ability  to 

12 


read.  He  was  himself  illiterate,  but  he  procured  birch 
bark,  wrote  characters  on  it,  and  in  a crude  way  he 
painted  natural  forms.  He  conceived  the  idea  of  in- 
venting characters  to  stand  for  sounds.  Some  letters 
he  took  from  an  English  spelling  book  with  which  he 
had  gained  some  familiarity,  others  from  Greek,  and 
worked  out  a syllabary  of  eighty-six  characters.  It 
took  him  two  years  to  perfect  his  alphabet.  He 
taught  his  six-year-old  daughter  to  spell  and  read, 
and  soon  the  people  of  his  tribe  flocked  to  him.  He 
is  the  Indian  Cadmus,  original  inventor  of  written 
language  for  the  Red  Man.  Real  genius  must  be  con- 
ceded to  him  under  the  circumstances  of  his  remark- 
able achievement. 

In  1831  the  American  Bible  Society  took  over  the 
work  of  printing  Cherokee  Scriptures  in  this  sylla- 
bary; it  now  issues  the  whole  New  Testament  and 
parts  of  the  Old  Testament  in  the  Cherokee 
characters.  These  books  have  been  a light 
to  the  path  of  large  numbers  of  the  Chero- 
kees.  It  was  one  of  these,  a woman  converted 
by  reading  the  Scriptures  in  her  own  language, 
who  in  1835  sent  her  thanks  to  the  Bible  Society.  She 
said:  “My  heart  is  glad  for  the  books,  and  is  full 
of  love  and  thankfulness  for  them.  I cannot  speak 
how  much  we  are  all  glad  and  thankful,  and  we  pray 
much  every  day  for  those  good  people  who  are  helping 
us  to  get  the  Word  of  God.”  The  Cherokee  nation 
has  become  so  far  assimilated  with  the  white  popula- 
tion that  one  does  not  realize  the  struggles  through 
which  it  passed  in  the  early  stages  of  its  develop- 
ment. 

The  Great  Dakota  Bible 

The  greatest  Indian  translation  of  the  whole  Bible 
published  by  the  American  Bible  Society  is  the 
Scriptures  in  the  language  of  the  Dakotas  or  Sioux 
of  the  Plains,  the  largest  tribe  of  American  Indians. 
It  was  the  unremitting  toil  of  Dr.  Thomas  S.  William- 

13 


son  and  Dr.  Stephen  Riggs,  along  with  their  exact- 
ing and  varied  labors  in  missionary  service  for  this 
tribe  which  accomplished  the  result  of  such  far- 
reaching  importance. 

The  great  work  occupied  mtfch  of  Dr.  William- 
son’s time  for  forty  years.  To  this  he,  with  Dr. 
Riggs,  gave  every  hour  he  could  command,  the  two 
working  in  the  utmost  harmony,  each  revising  the 
work  of  the  other — the  Rev.  John  P.  Williamson,  Dr. 
Williamson’s  son,  reviewing  both.  It  is  touching  to 
read  in  the  account  of  Dr.  Riggs  entitled,  “Mary  and 
I,  or  Forty  Years  Among  the  Sioux,’’  this  brief 
statement  of  the  close  of  their  translation  work.  They 
had  nearly  reached  the  end  of  their  labor  of  love 
when,  in  1876,  Dr.  Williamson’s  beloved  wife,  the 
light  of  his  home,  “went  over  the  river  to  rest  under 
the  trees.”  He  grew  homesick  and  longed  to  depart, 
but  he  said,  “I  would  like  to  live  until  this  translation 
is  done.  Then  there  will  remain  little  or  nothing  for 
me,  an  old  man  and  much  worn,  to  do.”  At  length 
the  work  was  completed,  and  soon  thereafter  he  went 
quietly  away,  his  name  to  be  cherished,  his  influence 
to  live,  the  fruitage  of  his  work  to  increase  until 
time  shall  end. 

The  work  was  taken  over  by  the  Bible  Society  in 
1839,  and  the  complete  Bible  in  Dakota  was  published 
forty  years  later,  in  1879. 

When  in  1886  an  Indian  Commissioner  issued  an 
order  forbidding  the  Sioux  to  learn  to  read  their  own 
language,  and  his  agents  attempted  to  prevent  re- 
ligious worship  in  that  language.  Chief  Gray  Cloud 
of  Sisseton  said,  “I  never  saw  a Dakota  filling  a re- 
sponsible position  who  had  not  first  been  educated  in 
his  own  language  and  Christianized  and  so  made  re- 
liable.” When  the  Indians  petitioned  President  Cleve- 
land to  revoke  the  senseless  and  oppressive  order  they 
said : “By  learning  the  Bible  a good  many  of  our  peo- 
ple have  been  quieted  down  in  Christian  homes  and 


civilized  ways.  The  first  scholars  of  the  Dakota 
language,  with  the  help  of  a little  English,  have  be- 
come the  trustworthy  men  of  the  different  agencies 
■ — ministers,  teachers.  Government  clerks,  farmers, 
citizens,  and,  above  all,  true  Christians.” 

The  Miracle  Among  the  Sioux 
The  change  wrought  in  the  Sioux  tribes  through 
the  gospel  is  a miracle  of  divine  power.  The  war 
whoop  of  these  savages  was  once  the  haunting  terror 
of  life  on  the  plains.  In  1887  a man  connected  with 
Buffalo  Bill’s  show  in  London  happened  to  see  one 
of  its  Sioux  Indians  lying  in  his  bunk  and  reading  a 
book.  He  was  curious  to  know  what  book  could 
possibly  hold  the  interest  of  the  Indian,  whom  he  had 
supposed  to  know  nothing  more  than  how  to  curdle 
the  blood  with  the  war  whoop.  Asking  the  Indian 
what  book  it  was,  he  was  allowed  to  take  it.  It  was 
the  Dakota  Bible,  which  this  young  Christian  Indian 
had  sense  enough  to  know  could  hold  him,  as  moor- 
ings hold  a ship,  while  he  was  exposed  to  the  tempta- 
tion of  the  irresponsible  life  to  which  in  ignorance  he 
had  bound  himself. 

Many  diverse  influences  have  contributed  to  the 
civilization  of  the  Sioux  Indians,  but  the  greatest  of 
these  influences  is  the  Bible  that  has  entered  into 
their  thought  and  cannot  now  be  expelled.  The  truth 
was  expressed  a few  years  ago  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cook 
(a  Sioux  presbyter  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church),  when  he  said:  “May  God  abundantly  re- 
ward in  the  day  of  reckoning  his  two  faithful  ser- 
vants, Dr.  Williamson  and  Dr.  Riggs,  who  gave  us 
the  Holy  Scriptures  in  our  own  tongue,  thus  helping 
to  make  us  what  we  are  and  what  in  the  future  we 
shall  be  through  His  grace.” 

Muskogee,  Creek,  Arapahoe  and  Winnebago 
The  Bible  Society  published  the  Gospel  of  Matthew 
in  Muskogee,  the  language  of  the  Creeks  and  the 

15 


Seminoles,  in  1868.  The  whole  New  Testament  was 
published  in  1887.  Dr.  H.  F.  Buckner  made  the 
earliest  translations.  Rev.  R.  M.  Loughridge,  D.D., 
carried  through  the  translation  of  Matthew  and  the 
first  chapter  of  John.  But  the  main  work  was  done 
by  the  Rev.  W.  S.  Roberston  and  Mrs.  Robertson. 
To  Mrs.  Robertson  is  due  the  credit  of  having 
contributed  by  far  the  largest  share  of  the  trans- 
lation. Co-laboring  with  her  husband  while  he  was 
living,  and  having  assistance  from  several  Mus- 
kogee Christians,  as  well  as  from  missionaries  of 
various  denominations,  she  had  the  ultimate  joy  of 
sharing  with  her  beloved  Indians  the  result  of 
much  toil  and  loving  devotion — the  completed  New 
Testament. 

We  know  of  the  Creek  War  and  the  Seminole  War. 
Long  these  tribes  refused  to  listen  to  the  missionaries, 
and  lived  in  helpless  wrath.  They  persecuted  fiercely 
any  of  their  number  who  accepted  the  religion  of  the 
hated  white  man.  Yet,  when  after  long,  patient 
teaching  by  missionaries,  the  National  Council  of  the 
Creeks  was  presented  in  1868  by  the  Bible  Society 
with  a Bible,  the  Council  voted  henceforth  to  open  its 
sessions  by  reading  the  Bible  and  prayer.  It  was  a 
landmark  of  the  progress  of  the  tribes.  The  day  of 
peace  had  fully  dawned  because  they  had  taken 
knowledge  of  the  Prince  of  Peace. 

Another  still  more  recent  experiment  in  Bible  trans- 
lation is  the  Rev.  J.  Roberts’  Arapahoe  Version  of  the 
Gospel  of  Luke,  which  was  published  by  the  Bible 
Society  in  1903. 

For  the  Winnebagos  the  Four  Gospels,  the  Acts, 
Genesis,  and  a part  of  Exodus,  translated  by  the  Rev. 
J.  Stucki,  were  published  in  1909  by  the  American 
Bible  Society. 

Nor  is  it  by  versions  in  the  Indian  languages  alone 
that  the  Bible  Society  has  made  the  needs  of  such 
missions  its  own  needs.  Thousands  of  Bibles  and 

16 


Testaments  in  English  have  been  given  to  mission 
schools  among  the  Indians. 

The  Navaho  Heathmen 

The  latest  instance  and  illustration  of  this  power 
of  the  life-giving  Divine  Word  read  and  preached 
from  the  open  Book  is  shown  among  the  Navaho 
tribe  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico.  Numbering 
twenty-eight  thousand  souls,  according  to  the  imper- 
fect census  and  the  estimate  of  the  government,  this, 
the  second  largest  tribe  of  Indians  of  our  land,  has 
waited  all  of  the  decades  of  the  past  century  since 
first  coming  into  contact  with  men  of  a Christian 
race  to  have  the  Scriptures  in  their  native  tongue. 

The  Navahos  are  heathen  in  the  original  sense  of  the 
word : they  are  heathmen.  Their  calling  as  shepherds 
in  an  arid  country  requires  them  to  move  from  place 
to  place.  They  camp  for  the  time  in  the  most  con- 
venient region.  Land  is  owned  in  common,  but  oc- 
cupation and  improvements  give  a sort  of  title.  Their 
nomadic  life  is  one  of  the  supreme  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  their  uplift  by  school,  mission,  or  home  im- 
provement. They  are  in  the  patriarchal  stage  of  de- 
velopment, and  their  customs  illuminate  the  story  of 
Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob.  They  are  less  demoralized 
by  vicious  whites  than  are  other  tribes.  They  have 
sturdy  hearts,  which  make  them  at  the  same  time 
harder  to  reach  and  better  worth  reaching  than  most 
aborigines. 

The  Navahos  are  almost  free  from  intemper- 
ance, but  gambling  has  been  their  besetting  sin. 
Fear  of  death  and  dread  of  evil  spirits  are  specters 
of  terror  to  them.  Strong  belief  in  witchcraft  and 
in  spirit  manifestations,  and  the  deification  (as  oc- 
casion may  require  it)  of  nearly  every  beastly  object 
known  to  them,  stamps  their  belief  as  not  only  primi- 
tive but  pagan  from  start  to  finish,  nowhere  more 
fittingly  and  accurately  described  than  in  Romans 
1:19-31. 


17 


The  American  Bible  Society  has  rendered  a signal 
service  by  supplying  a great  need  in  the  publication 
of  the  Navaho  Scriptures.  The  translation  was  initi- 
ated by  the  Rev.  Leonard  P.  Brink,  of  Tohatchi, 
New  Mexico,  who  began  with  Genesis  and  Mark 
in  1910.  The  final  work  of  putting  the  trans- 
lation into  shape  for  the  press  was  done  by  the 
Rev.  F.  G.  Mitchell  of  Tolchaco,  and  the  Rev. 
John  Butler  of  Tuba,  Ariz. 

The  neglected  condition  of  the  tribe,  and  the  im- 
mediate impression  made  by  the  new  translation 
amongthese  Navahos,  is  well  presented  in  the  follow- 
ing recent  report  from  the  Rev.  Clarence  N.  Platt  of 
Ganado  Mission,  Ariz: 

“Few  of  us  who  have  been  reared  in  a Christian 
environment  can  appreciate  the  tremendous  step  a 
Navaho  takes  when  he  renounces  paganism  and  em- 
braces Christianity.  On  one  of  our  visits  to  a Navaho 
‘hogan,’  or  hut,  last  summer,  an  old  man  on  hearing 
the  gospel  kept  repeating  after  my  interpreter  the 
names  ‘God’  and  ‘Jesus,’  as  it  was  the  first  time  he  had 
heard  them.  ‘Whom  do  you  pray  to  ?’  we  asked.  ‘Oh, 
I pray  to  the  dawn,  to  the  mountain,  to  the  sun  and 
stars,’  said  he.  ‘I  am  not  a medicine  man,  so  I do  not 
know  many  prayers,  but  I use  corn  powder  when  I 
pray . ’ The  N avaho  s sprinkle  finely-ground  com  meal 
in  the  direction  of  the  deity  to  whom  they  pray,  to 
show  their  peaceful  relation  to  him.  ‘Well,’  said  I, 
‘the  mountain,  the  dawn,  the  sun  and  the  stars  have 
no  ears  to  hear  you,  no  heart  to  love  you,  and  no 
hands  to  stretch  out  to  help  you.  But  God  has  all 
of  these.’  ‘Oh,’  said  the  old  man,  ‘I  pray  to  all  those 
things  so  I may  be  sure  not  to  miss  God.’  Besides 
such  pantheistic  belief  as  this,  the  Navahos  have  a 
number  of  mystical  beings  to  whom  they  pray.  Some 
are  pictured  in  the  sand  by  their  medicine  men  and 
prayed  to  with  elaborate  ceremonies  lasting  a number 
of  days.  The  treatment  of  the  sick  by  their  medicine 

18 


men  is  a grossly  superstitious  religious  ceremony,  an 
effort  to  propitiate  or  to  drive  out  the  evil  spirit  or 
spirits  supposed  to  be  causing  the  ailment.  Their 
singing  and  dancing  all  have  some  religious  signifi- 
cance and  many  of  their  ceremonies  are  occasions  for 
large  social  gatherings.  Hence,  for  a Navaho  to  break 
with  paganism  and  embrace  Christianity  is  to  become 
ostracized  socially  and  to  be  made  an  object  of  ridi- 
cule and  persecution. 

Victorious  Conquest  over  Paganism 

“The  results  of  evangelistic  meetings,  therefore, 
during  the  past  few  months,  have  given  us  much  rea- 
son for  rejoicing.  In  August  the  Rev.  F.  G.  Mitchell 
came  here,  introducing  the  advance  copies  of  the 
Navaho  Bible  recently  received  from  the  press  of  the 
American  Bible  Society.  From  these  he  read  to 
audiences  on  two  successive  Sundays,  closing  with  an 
evangelistic  message  at  the  morning  services.  An 
afternoon  meeting  was  also  held  each  Sunday  and 
opportunity  for  personal  testimony  was  given,  fol- 
lowed by  an  invitation  to  begin  the  Christian  life.  At 
least  five  Navahos  took  a definite  stand  and  more  than 
half  the  audience  on  the  second  Sunday  came  forward 
to  show  their  belief  in  the  truth  as  presented.  On 
November  29th  Mr.  W.  R.  Johnston  and  the  Rev.  F. 
G.  Mitchell  conducted  meetings  morning  and  after- 
noon. A large  majority  came  forward  at  the  after- 
noon meeting  and  this  time  signified  their  purpose  to 
‘take  hold  of  God’s  way,’  as  they  expressed  it,  thus 
making  an  advance  beyond  the  stand  taken  at  the 
August  meeting. 

“Thus  far  the  books  of  Genesis,  Jonah,  Mark, 
John,  the  first  eight  chapters  of  Romans  and  por- 
tions of  the  Psalms,  Proverbs,  Isaiah,  Luke,  Acts  and 
Revelation  have  been  translated.  A number  of  mis- 
sionaries and  mission  interpreters  have  had  a part 
in  this  translation. 


19 


“We  wish  it  had  been  possible  for  others  to  share 
with  us  the  joy  of  witnessing  the  intense  interest  on 
the  faces  of  the  Navahos  as  they  heard  Mr.  Mitchell 
read  Navaho  from  a printed  page  for  the  first  time 
in  their  lives.  The  fact  that  it  was  the  story  of  how 
God  created  the  world  added  to  their  interest,  for 
they  have  their  own  tradition  of  the  creation,  passed 
down  by  word  of  mouth  from  generation  to  genera- 
tion. We  have  used  very  profitably  the  advance 
copies  of  Genesis  in  our  ‘hogan’  preaching. 

“Only  those  on  the  field  who  know  the  immoral 
environment  of  the  Navahos  can  appreciate  how  tre- 
mendous is  the  task  of  so  nurturing  our  new  con- 
verts with  the  ‘sincere  milk  of  the  word,’  that  in  time 
of  temptation  they  may  be  fortified  with  God’s 
precious  promises  and  may  withstand  the  assaults  of 
the  adversary.” 

To  a missionary  at  Tuba,  Ariz.,  on  the  Navaho 
Reservation,  a hundred  miles  from  civilization,  came 
an  aged  man  last  year.  He  had  been  attending  Sun- 
day services  and  in  his  deliberate  way  had  now  ar- 
rived at  a conclusion  regarding  “the  message  of  the 
Book”  which  he  had  heard  and  pondered.  These 
were  his  words  through  the  interpreter  as  he  an- 
nounced to  the  “Sunday-man”  his  conversion.  “Tell 
the  missionary  I am  done  with  the  old  reverence  for 
the  coyote,  the  rattlesnake,  the  bat  and  the  owl  (the 
four  things  that  the  Navahos  hold  in  superstitious 
fear).  I am  ready  to  take  the  ‘Jesus  road.’  And  I 
have  come  a long  distance  over  the  trail  to-day  to 
learn  more  of  the  new  way.”  This  gray-haired 
Navaho,  just  taking  his  first  steps  on  the  upward 
trail,  learning  of  the  new  faith,  has  a long  way  to 
travel,  and  yet  the  transformation  already  has  been 
great.  Faith  in  the  old  Indian  religion  has  been  de- 
stroyed, hope  and  endeavor  in  the  direction  of  Chris- 
tian truth  and  the  religion  of  the  Book  have  been  es- 
tablished. 


20 


"It  Pulls  My  Heart” 

Greatest  of  the  gifts  which  the  paleface  has  passed 
on  to  the  Red  Man  is  the  religion  of  the  Book. 
Said  old  Monatave,  a chief  of  the  Mohaves : “When 
you  read  out  of  that  Book  I know  it  is  God’s  book, 
for  it  pulls  my  heart.” 

A missionary  of  the  Bible  Society  engaged  in  work 
in  New  Mexico  and  Arizona  reports  recently  the  sell- 
ing of  a number  of  copies  of  the  Scriptures  to  the  In- 
diems with  whom  he  comes  in  contact  along  the  rail- 
road and  away  from  the  reservations.  A New  Tes- 
tament was  accepted  in  exchange  for  a piece  of  pot- 
tery which  one  of  the  Indians  was  endeavoring  to 
sell  to  tourists  at  the  station.  In  an  Arizona  town  a 
full-blood  Navaho  who  had  received  a government 
school  education  but  was  still  a man  of  the  wild  was 
surprised  when  the  colporteur  told  him  that  he  could 
furnish  him  a copy  of  the  Scriptures  in  Navaho. 
When  the  Navaho  editions  of  Genesis  and  the  Gospel 
of  Mark  were  produced  he  was  delighted  and  will- 
ingly  paid  for  them. 

President  Roosevelt’s  Testimony 
President  Roosevelt,  when  governor  of  the  state 
of  New  York,  in  an  address  to  the  members  of  the 
Ecumenical  Conference  on  Foreign  Missions,  in 
1900,  referring  to  an  extended  trip  he  had  made 
among  the  Indians,  said : 

“I  spent  twice  the  time  I intended  because  I be- 
came so  interested,  and  I traveled  all  over  the  res- 
ervations to  see  what  was  being  done,  especially  by 
the  missionaries,  because  it  needed  no  time  at  all  to 
see  that  the  great  factors  in  the  uplifting  of  the  In- 
dian were  the  men  who  were  teaching  the  Indian 
to  become  a Christian  citizen.” 

The  original  occupation  and  crafts  of  the  Indians 
were  all  associated  with  religious  ideas,  and  received 
their  meaning  and  inspiration  from  their  religious 

21 


faith.  Their  ancient  industrial  system  has  been 
broken  up  by  the  new  order  and  their  changed  en- 
vironment. Robbed  of  the  old  faith  which  progres- 
sive and  educated  Indians  can  no  longer  believe, 
they  are  bereft  unless  they  embrace  the  new.  It  is 
our  duty  to  give  the  new  religious  and  ethical  sig- 
nificance to  all  life  and  its  occupations. 

Now  the  contest,  which  must  be  unremitting,  is  to 
be  completed.  It  is  the  contest  of  the  Faith  brought 
by  the  white  man,  grappling  with  a paganism  hoary 
with  age,  with  superstitions  to  which  the  Red  race 
has  clung  for  all  the  generations.  It  is  the  contest 
of  revealed  religion  with  nature  worship,  with 
heathen  practices  and  the  rites  of  the  shamans  of 
the  tribe,  the  medicine  men  who  rule  and  terrify  by 
means  of  their  ignorant  priestcraft. 

Leaders  of  the  Future 

The  leaders  of  the  race  will  be  the  young  Chris- 
tians of  this  generation,  and  the  Word  of  God  is 
the  weapon  with  which  they  will  conquer  the  re- 
maining superstition,  ignorance  and  paganism  of 
their  people. 

Indian  student  delegates  to  the  Student  Volun- 
teer Convention  held  in  Kansas  City  in  January, 
1914,  adopted  this  significant  resolution;  “We  de- 
sire to  express  our  appreciation  and  gratitude  for 
the  work  that  has  been  and  is  being  done  among  our 
people  by  the  Christian  workers  from  the  various 
denominations. 

“We  have  come  to  realize  through  contact  with 
workers  of  other  races  that  the  greatest  need  of  the 
Indian  to-day  is  Christian  civilization ; that  the  solv- 
ing of  the  Indian  problem  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  In- 
dian must  be  not  only  educated  but  led  to  accept  the 
Son  of  God  and  the  Saviour  of  the  world  as  his  per- 
sonal Saviour. 

“We  also  realize  that  this  can  be  done  more  cf- 
22 


fectively  by  Indian  students  who  are  imbued  with 
the  spirit  of  Christ  and  who  are  ready  and  willing 
to  evangelize  their  own  people  in  this  generation. 

“We  therefore  offer  ourselves  and  our  services  to 
teach  our  Indian  brothers  and  sisters,  the  way,  the 
truth,  and  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ.” 

Dr.  William  Hanna,  the  Scotch  theologian,  ex- 
pressed the  truth  which  needs  to  be  impressed  upon 
the  Indian  Christian  to-day : “Originally  the  Church 
of  Christ  was  one  large  company  of  missionaries  of 
the  cross,  each  member  feeling  that  to  him  a portion 
of  the  great  task  of  evangelizing  the  world  was  com- 
mitted; and  it  will  be  just  in  proportion  as  the  com- 
munity of  the  faithful,  through  all  its  parts,  in  all  its 
members,  comes  to  recognize  this  to  be  its  function 
and  attempts  to  execute  it  that  the  expansive  power 
that  once  belonged  to  it  will  return  again.” 

The  accomplishment  of  this  personal  evangelism 
and  native  responsibility  among  the  Indians  of  our 
land  rests  largely  in  the  translation,  publication  and 
circulation  of  the  Scriptures  in  their  own  language. 
The  Bible  in  the  life  of  the  Indians  to-day  is  the 
hope  of  the  native  American  race, 


23 


Price  List  of  Scriptures  Published  by  the 
American  Bible  Society  for  Indians 
in  the  United  States 


Arap«hoe  No.  1 


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A CENTURY 

of 

THE  AMERICAN  BIBLE  SOCIETY 

It  was  founded  May  8, 1816,  and  attained  its  Century 
May  8. 1916 

WHAT  IT  HAS  DONE* 

IN  GENERAL 

It  has  held  strictly  to,  and  greatly  accomplished  the  one 
grand  work  for  which  it  was  instituted — the  wider  circula- 
tion of  the  Scriptures  without  note  or  comment. 

It  has  drawn  the  denominations  together  in  this  great  work, 
becoming  thereby  a bond  of  unity,  a pioneer  in  co-oper- 
ation. “The  Bible  Society  undergirds  and  strengthens 
all  other  organizations  and  movements  in  our  all-embrac- 
ing Christianity.”  (J.  R.  Mott.) 

It  has  furnished  and  furnishes  missionaries,  home  and  for- 
eign, with  the  chief  implement  of  their  work — the  Bible. 

It  has  circulated,  and  grants,  the  Scriptures  to  all  people 
without  denominational  or  racial  discrimination. 

With  European  Bible  Societies  it  has  made  the  Bible  the 
cheapest  and  most  ubiquitous  book  in  the  world — a price- 
less boon  to  the  poor;  in  scores  of  languages  a Gospel 
may  be  had  for  1 cent  or  less. 

IN  PARTICULAR 

Languages 

It  circulates  the  Bible  in  more  than  150  languages  and  types: 
in  the  United  States  in  1915  it  issued  Scriptures  in  98  lan- 
guages: abroad  it  issued  Scriptures  in  91  languages. 

It  has  aided  the  translation  or  revision  of  the  Scriptures  in 
more  than  80  languages;  e.  g.,  first  giving  the  Scriptures 
to  American  Indians  in  5 of  their  languages,  to  the  Philip- 
pine Islanders  in  8 of  their  languages. 

It  issues  thousands  of  Bibles  for  the  blind  : English  in 
three  systems — Line  Letter,  Point  Print  and  Braille ; 
Arabic  in  two  systems  ; Spanish,  Armenian,  Armeno- 
Turkish,  Japanese,  Korean,  Siamese,  one  system  each. 

It  prints  the  Bible  in  45  languages,  at  the  Bible  House, 
New  York. 

Issues 

It  issued,  in  1915,  at  home,  2,707,971  volumes;  abroad, 
5,053,406;  a total  of  7,761,377  volumes.  Since  its  birth 
in  1816,  it  has  issued  in  the  United  States,  71,536,305 
Scriptures;  in  foreign  lands,  46,151,286:  a total  of 
117,687,591  volumes — a stupendous  accomplishment. 


Specitl  Classes 

Special  classes  and  special  emergencies  have  been  met  by 
special  provision:  in  the  Civil  War  it  distributed  3,000,- 
000  volumes  to  Northern  soldiers  and  over  300,000  vol- 
umes to  Southern  soldiers,  through  the  co-operation  of 
Northern  and  Southern  military  authorities;  in  the  Russo- 
Japanese  War  it  provided  Scriptures  for  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  Japanese  and  Russian  soldiers:  in  the  present 
war  it  has  supplied  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Testaments 
and  Gospels  to  the  soldiers  in  Europe. 

A special  Agency  cares  for  the  colored  people:  immigrants 
are  provided  with  the  Scriptures  in  their  own  languages, 
Bibles  being  distributed  in  89  foreign  languages  in  1914. 

It  has  sought  out,  and  brings  the  Bible  to,  the  poor,  the 
ignorant,  the  untaught;  prisoners,  strangers,  travelers; 
the  destitute  and  unchurched  classes. 

Finance 

la  1915  its  charges  on  account  of  the  translation,  printing, 
and  circulatioi  of  Scriptures  in  the  United  States  and 
abroad  were  $823,234. 

In  its  100  years,  as  almoner  for  the  American  people,  it  has 
received  and  spent  over  $38,500,000. 

Where  and  How? 

This  great  work  is  being  prosecuted  on  5 Continents  and  the 
Islands  of  The  Seven  Seas:  it  is  done  through  12  Agencies 
abroad  with  1,661  workers,  and  9 Agencies  in  America 

,,  with  496  workers : it  is  done  through  individuals, 
churches,  Sunday  schools,  societies,  hospitals,  minis- 
ters, evangelists,  missionaries. 

Thus  it  has  helped  thousands,  known  and  unknown,  to  Him 
who  is  the  Way,  the  Truth  and  the  Life. 

The  Need  Is  Still  Great 

The  Home  Agencies  found  59,597  families  without  a Bible 
in  1915  ; hundreds  of  thousands  still  need  the  Gospel. 
Abroad,  hundreds  of  millions  have  not  yet  heard  that 
there  is  a Gospel.  Opportunities,  in  some  instances 
unprecedented,  are  now  open  in  China,  Japan,  Korea,  the 
South  American  Republics,  Central  America,  the  Canal 
Zone  and  the  Island  possessions  of  the  United  States. 

The  Society’s  budget  for  the  ensuing  year  is  $652,300. 
From  invested  funds  about  one-sixth  of  this  amount  will 
come.  Legacies  can  be  relied  on  for  a part.  Sales  will 
bring  in  more.  But  a chief  financial  resource  of  the  So- 
ciety for  this  world-wide,  soul-saving,  life-blessing  work, 
is  its  living,  generous  friends. 

ARE  YOU  AMONG  THEM? 


AMERICAN  BIBLE  SOCIETY 

Bible  House.  Astor  Place.  New  York 

Home  Atfencies 

Colored  People  of  the  South,  Rev.  J.  P.  Weaog.  D.D. 

35  Gammon  Ave..  Atlanta.  Ga. 
KorthiBestem  Agency.  Rev.  S.  H.  Kirkbridb,  D.D. 

McCormick  Building:.  332  Sontb  Michigran  Ave..  Ctaicagro.  111. 
South  Atlantic  Agency,  Rev.  M.B.  Porter 

205  North  Fifth  Street,  Richmond,  Va. 

Western  Agency,  Rev.  Arthur  F.  Ragatz,  D.D. 

Y.  M.  C.  A.  Building:,  Lincoln  St.  and  16th  Ave.,  Denver,  Colo. 

Pacific  Agency,  Rev.  A.  Westey  Mele 

200-210  Golden  Gate  Ave.,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 
Southwestern  Agency,  Rev.  J.  J.  Morgan 

1304  Commerce  Street,  Dallas,  Texas. 

Eastern  Agency,  Rev,  Henry  J.  Scudder,  B.D. 

137  Montagnie  Street,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Central  Agency,  Rev,  George  S.  J.  Browne,  D.D. 

424  Elm  Street,  Cincinnati,  O. 

Atlantic  Agency,  Rev,  Leighton  W.  Eceard,  D.D. 

701  Walnut  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Foreign  Atfencies 

Levant  Agency,  Rev.  Marcellos  Bowen,  D.D.* 

Bible  House,  Constantinople,  Turkey 
La  Plata  Agency,  Rev.  Francis  G.  Penzotti 

Box  304,  Lavalle  1467,  Buenos  Ayres,  Argentina 
Japan  Agency,  Herbert  W.  Schwartz,  M.D. 

53  Main  Street,  Yokohama,  Japan 
China  Agency,  Rev.  John  R.  Hykes,  D.D. 

73  Szechuen  Road,  Shang:hal.  China 
Brasil  Agency,  Rev.  H.  C.  Tucker 

Caixa  do  Correlo,454,  Rio  de  Janeiro,  Brazil 
Mexico  Agency  I ^ w n Tr. 

West  Indies  Agency  I uval’de  St.,^n\ntonio.  Tex..  U.  S.  A. 

Korea  Agency,  Rev.  S.  A.  Beck  Seoul,  Korea 

Venezuela  Agency,  Rev.  Gerard  A.  Bailly 

Apartado  de  Correo  419,  Caracas,  Venezuela 
Siam  Agency,  Rev.  Robert  Irwin 

426  Pramuen  Road,  Bang:kok,  Slam 
Central  America  and  Panama  Agency,  Rev.  James  Haytbr 

Cristobal.  Canal  Zone 

Philippines  Agency,  Rev.  J.  L.  McLaughlin 

Box  755,  ManUa,  P.  I. 


•Died  October  3. 1916. 


12, 16):  2m. 


CENTENNIAL  PAMPHLETS 


SMALL  QUARTO  (7K  x 8^) 

1 The  Bible,  the  Book  of  Mankind,  by  Prof.  B.  B.  Warfield, 

D.D.,  LL.D.  16  pages. 

2 The  Bible  in  Europe,  by  Prof.  A.  Kuyper,  D.D. , LL.D., 

of  Holland.  12  pages. 

3 The  Greek  Testament,  The  Ecumenical  Patriarch  of 

Constantinople  with  the  collaboration  of  the  Bishop 
of  Nicea,  the  Bishop  of  Sardis  and  the  Bishop  of 
Seleucia.  12  pages. 

4 The  Hebrew  Bible,  by  Rev.  S.  B.  Rohold,  F.R.G.S.,  of 

Toronto.  12  pages. 

5 The  Birthplace  of  the  Bible  Society,  and  other  historical 

papers.  28  pages. 

6 Facts  and  Achievements  of  the  Century.  32  pages. 

7 Tableaux  of  The  Bible  Among  the  Nations.  20  pages. 

11  Around  the  World  for  the  Centennial,  illustrated,  by 

Rev.  William  Ingraham  Haven,  D.D.  116  pages. 

SMALL  OCTAVO  {5x7'/) 

10.  The  Bible  Among  the  Nations,  by  Rev.  Henry  Otis 
Dwight,  LL.D.  32  pages. 

12  The  American  Bible  Society  in  China,  by  Rev.  John  R. 

Hykes,  D.D.  54  pages. 

13  The  Bible  in  Korea,  by  Rev.  George  Heber  Jones,  D.D. 

20  pages. 

14  The  Bible  in  the  Life  of  the  Indians  of  the  United  States, 

by  Rev.  Thomas  C.  Moffett,  D.D.  28  pages. 

15  The  Bible  in  Bruil,  by  Rev.  Hugh  C.  Tucker.  28  pages. 

16  Spiritual  Victories  in  Latin  America:  Mr.  Penzotti’s 

Autobiography.  74  pages. 

17  Light  After  Dark  Centuries  in  the  Philippines.  20  pages. 

18  The  Bible  in  the  Land  of  the  White  Elephant — Siam. 

20  pages. 

19  The  American  Bible  Society  in  India.  20  pages. 

20  Specimen  Verses  of  Scripture  in  Languages  and  Dialects. 

60  pages. 

21  List  of  Printed  Versions,  by  Bernhard  Pick,  Ph.D., 

D.D.  (/«  preparation .) 

22  Translations  of  the  Scriptures  into  the  Languages  of 

China  and  Her  Dependencies,  by  Rev.  John  R.  Hykes, 
D.D.  40  pages 

23  The  Bible  in  Bible  Lands — History  of  the  Levant  Agency, 

by  Rev.  Marcellos  Bowen,  D.D.  40  pages. 

Slnirle  ropl<><  of  the^p  pamphlets  maj  be  had,  postpaid,  for  h cents 
each  : In  quantities  of  lU  or  more  at  3 rents  each.  Order  from 

The  Secretaries.  Anierlran  Bible  Sorletjr,  .Astor  Flare,  >ew  York  City, 
or  from  .Ygenry  Secretaries. 


